


Delayed Conversion

by KahtyaSofia



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-25
Updated: 2009-11-25
Packaged: 2017-10-03 18:02:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KahtyaSofia/pseuds/KahtyaSofia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU – Ianto returns to find Lisa has strapped Jack into the conversion unit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Delayed Conversion

**Author's Note:**

> 1) I believe Ianto suffers from survivor's guilt and PTSD and that is what strongly motivated his early actions and still allowed him to turn to Jack after it all. 2) Chris Chibnall, the writer of 'Cyberwoman' has said that Lisa died at Canary Wharf and the Cyberman used Ianto's feelings for her to manipulate him. 3) John Barrowman has been known to give inconsistent interview answers when asked about TW things in the future but when he answers about TW things in the can, you can take it to the bank. So, when he said that Jack was at least partially motivated by jealousy over Lisa, I believe it was so. 4) Cyberwoman may have its issues, but some of its events contribute to who Ianto develops into so I didn't want to change them, regardless of who got thrown into the conversion unit so, Lisa tossing Ianto, Jack setting Myfanwy on Lisa and the punch in the Plass remain intact.

**_S_**neaking back into the hub after Ianto had escorted Dr. Tanizaki to his hotel was surprisingly easy. He hadn't anticipated that Jack wouldn't be there. A quick check of the CCTV told Ianto that Jack was roof-standing on the clock tower again. Just as well, Ianto believed. He could get back to Lisa and let her know Dr. Tanizaki had arrived without Ianto's being accosted by Jack.

As Ianto made his way to the cells and through the door to the lower levels, he told himself he was happy that Lisa's journey to recovery was so close to complete. That was not disappointment he was feeling at not finding Jack in the Hub. It was relief.

Ianto paused to take a deep, fortifying breath, and then turned the key to the lock of the door to Lisa's room. He had no sooner slid the bolt than he heard her call out to him. He ignored the leading edge of dread and annoyance that began to creep up on him.

"Ianto? Is that you?"

He told himself her voice was not strident and demanding; it was pain filled and pitiable. "Yes, my dear, it's me."

"Has he arrived?" she asked, and Ianto knew she meant Dr. Tanizaki.

"Yes," Ianto replied, "I took him to his hotel to settle in."

"Why didn't you bring him to me tonight?" Lisa demanded.

"We discussed this, darling," Ianto soothed, running his fingers down her cheek. "The others are going out together tomorrow night and we'll have the Hub to ourselves."

"I thought you wanted me to get better?" Ianto refused to consider that Lisa was whining.

"I do!" he assured her. "But the others won't understand if they discover you like this. It's too dangerous. We need to be sure they'll all be gone."  
"You mean the Captain won't understand," Lisa said in a tone Ianto would have called petulant in anyone else.

"Hush, Lisa." Ianto tried to change the subject. "You need to conserve your strength. You know your pain gets worse when you're fatigued."

"Read to me?" Lisa asked. "You've left me alone for so long today. You should stay and keep me company."

"Certainly." Ianto felt relief that she'd been distracted.

He took up the book he'd set aside the night before, but Lisa stopped him. "Not that one."

"Why not? You enjoyed it last night." Confusion and disappointment warred inside of Ianto.

"He gave it to you."

Ianto knew she meant Jack. How she'd come to know who'd lent him the book, he didn't know. "He thought I'd enjoy it. I do enjoy it. I thought you did, too."

"Pick another," Lisa demanded in a flat tone.

Reluctantly, Ianto reached for another book.

"Ianto, I hurt."

He refused to be annoyed as he adjusted Lisa's pain medication before sitting down to read to her. He hadn't gotten far when her voice interrupted him.

"I'm bored with this book, Ianto."

Suppressing a sigh of impatience, he set it aside and asked, "What would you like to do, then?"

"Tell me what time Dr. Tanizaki is coming tomorrow."

"As soon as the others leave tomorrow night, I'll call him and he'll take a taxi from his hotel."

"You need to find a way to get them out earlier."

Ianto felt the beginning twinge of a headache behind his eyes. He must be overly tired. Lisa seemed so much more unreasonable and demanding lately. The long hours and heavy responsibility must be getting to him. Faces of the dead and the converted flashed through his mind and guilt flooded his being. Ianto felt the heat from flames that no long surrounded him and felt the tug of imaginary hands. He needed to believe he'd been spared for a reason, and saving Lisa had to be it.

It was subtle, but Ianto felt it. He felt the slight shift in the air around them that indicated someone was in the cells. This late, it could only be Jack. His heart kicked up a few beats.

"He's back," Ianto said distractedly. "I have to go."

"He doesn't need you," Lisa protested. "I need you."

"I have to keep him distracted so he won't wander down here," Ianto explained for what felt like the hundredth time. The need to get to Jack was great.

"You should stay and keep me company. Be here if my pain gets to be too much," Lisa complained. "Or do you like distracting the Captain?"

Ianto leaned in and kissed Lisa's cheek. "That's the drugs talking," he said simply, and he moved toward the door but her words struck a nerve deep inside of him.

_**"S**_till here, Ianto?" Jack asked when Ianto stepped into the vaults. He could tell Jack had long since stopped being surprised at the hours Ianto kept.

"Yes, sir." Ianto felt his stomach flutter as Jack's pleased smile was turned on him full force. "Waiting for you to return to see if you needed anything else."

"Coffee?" Jack asked with childlike pleasure.

"Certainly," Ianto replied and felt an answering tug deep in his balls.

Jack placed a hand at the small of Ianto's back to guide him from the vaults. "Now that I'm back, you're not going to run off right away, are you?

Jack's breath tickled the back of Ianto's neck and he felt his cock twitch in response. "Did you need me for something?" Ianto's question was deliberately provocative.

Jack took the bait. "I thought I might take you down and see if I can get you to make that sound you made a couple of nights ago…"

Ianto told himself he was simply distracting Jack but a part of him knew he very much liked the fact that Jack gave as much as he took.

_**H**_e knew on some level that all was lost but he owed it to Lisa, whatever of her remained inside that metal and flesh shell, to keep trying. He owed it to all those who had been buried in the rubble in London.

It was hot in the sublevel. Lisa's support unit was throwing off waves of heat and the power drain was causing all the lights to flicker. As Ianto dragged Dr. Tanizaki's lifeless body into an empty cell, he saw and he heard Torchwood One falling all around him. His last, best hope for making everything all right was now under a tarp in a deserted cell in the nearly forgotten section of the vaults.

Ianto choked back his sobs. He knew the screams that echoed in his ears were no longer real but they terrified him nonetheless. He ignored the heat of the flames that weren't really there. He stopped himself from running, knowing he wasn't really being pursued. Still, Ianto's heart pounded, his breath came in heavy gasps and his mouth went dry. He fisted his trembling hands and pretended they were steady.

As Ianto started to make his way back to Lisa's room, he wondered if she really was his Lisa any longer. He tried to push the thought away; of course she was still his Lisa. But, his Lisa wouldn't have hurt Dr. Tanizaki. His Lisa wouldn't have spoken to him with such…menace. Whatever was wrong, he had to fix it. He had to work this out somehow; he owed it to them all.

All rational thought fled when Ianto made it back into Lisa's chamber. What he saw chilled him even more than the threat he had begun to sense from Lisa.

Jack had been strapped into the conversion unit.

He knew Jack might be able to forgive him for hiding Lisa in the first place, but no absolution would be forthcoming if anyone on the team was injured. Ianto panicked at the thought that he wouldn't have the chance to beg Jack's forgiveness if the man were dead.

Ianto moved immediately to Jack's side where he lay on the unit. He froze in fear at the desperate situation. He was only barely aware of Lisa standing at Jack's feet, facing down an armed Gwen. Owen lay unconscious on the floor. The grinding and whirring of the conversion unit, as the surgical arms dropped down from the ceiling, were deafening. Gwen stood, wide-eyed, with her gun pointed straight at Lisa. Ianto expected her to pull the trigger, but she didn't. Jack's shouts for her to take action were nearly drowned out by the sounds of the conversion unit as it moved inexorably down toward his head. The cacophony of sounds and chaos swirling around him overwhelmed Ianto. The tension in those around him was palpable and he knew he had to act quickly.

"Gwen!" Ianto heard Jack shout, "Shoot it! Damn it, Gwen, shoot it!"

"It's a woman, Jack," Gwen protested.

"It's not human," Jack countered. "Shoot it and get me out of this thing."

"Lisa," Ianto shouted. "You have to let Jack go." It wasn't lost on Ianto that he was now physically where he'd been symbolically for months now: trapped between Jack and Lisa and unsure of how to choose between them.

"Your Captain will be upgraded," Lisa said, turning to face Ianto. She was starting to make his choice a little easier.

"No," Ianto said, his voice edged with the desperation that coursed through his body. "We've been trying to cure you. Why would you want anyone else converted like you?"

Ianto had begun to suspect that Lisa was somewhat jealous of Jack. Was it possible that what she did to Dr. Tanizaki wasn't an accident? Did she intend for the same to happen to Jack?

Ianto knew he couldn't allow that to happen. He'd done all he had in order to try to set some things right. If Jack died before Ianto could explain things to him, make him understand why Ianto had been spared at Canary Wharf, then it wouldn't matter if Lisa were cured.

"Humans are flawed. You must be upgraded. Now that I am free, I will upgrade you all. The army will be rebuilt."

Ianto felt himself blanch at the implication of her words. Lisa had not wanted to be returned to human, she had wanted the conversion to be completed. Had he been so wrong about her and what she'd demanded of him over all these months? Would Jack be able to forgive him his blindness?

"Ianto," Jack was shouting at him now, dragging him out of his own horrified thoughts. "What the hell is going on here? Stop it and get me out of here."

"Your Captain will be upgraded," Lisa said again. "You will be upgraded. We will all be together. The army will be rebuilt."

"No, Lisa," Ianto pleaded. "This is wrong. You need to release him." Ianto was nauseous with fear for Jack's safety. He worked feverishly to shut down the power to the unit, but to his dismay it stayed powered up. It couldn't happen like this; he could not trade Lisa's survival for Jack's.

"Ianto?" Gwen asked from behind Lisa, "What's going on?"

"Did you know this was down here?" Jack asked angrily, and Ianto once again became aware of how close the blades of the conversion unit were to him. Without even realizing, Ianto made his choice between Jack and Lisa.

He didn't answer either Gwen or Jack, but turned his eyes to Lisa. "Let him go."

Several things happened at once: Lisa lunged for Ianto's neck, Ianto narrowly fell out of the way, and Gwen fired her weapon several times. When Ianto looked back up, Lisa was nowhere to be seen.

"Gwen? Ianto?" Jack shouted. "Where did it go? Get me the hell out of this thing!"

Gwen was at Jack's side in an instant. Ianto finally gained his feet and he realized just how close the conversion blades were to Jack's body. He tried again to cut the power to the conversion unit, but the blades continued to whir.

"Toshiko," Ianto shouted, activating his comm unit. "Shut down all the power to the Hub!"

"If I do that, we'll go into lockdown," came Tosh's distressed reply.

"Jack is in danger," Ianto told her, kicking at one of the power switches in fear and frustration. "Just shut it all down!"

Seconds later, the spinning blades of the conversion unit ground to a halt. The Hub was plunged into darkness; their only light now from the battery-powered emergency fixtures. Ianto's ears were left ringing with the sudden quiet.

From his place on the table, Jack breathed out heavily through pursed lips. "Get me the fuck out of this thing," he growled.

"I'm trying," Ianto said in frustration.

Gwen moved closer to the unit and asked, "Are you okay, Jack?"

"I'll be fine once I'm out of this damn contraption," Jack raised his voice. "Ianto, open the cover of my wrist strap."

Ianto crossed to Jack's other side and flipped open the cover of Jack's mysterious wrist technology. He followed Jack's instructions, punching buttons in the exact sequence Jack dictated. The conversion unit clicked as the restraints shot open and Jack was free. He scrambled off of the table and began to scrounge around on the floor for something. Ianto looked around the room distractedly, running a hand through his hair. He had no idea what to do now.

The sound of a hammer pulling back and a cylinder spinning caught Ianto's attention. He spun to see that it had been the Webley for which Jack had been searching. He must have lost it when Lisa had forced him onto the conversion unit. Jack stood now with the weapon pointed right at Ianto's head.

"Jack," Gwen squeaked. "What are you doing?"

"Resisting the urge to shoot," he replied through clenched teeth, and Ianto knew that now was not the time to seek Jack's understanding.

"I don't understand," she said in confusion. "What was that thing?"

"It's a Cyberman. Those are what brought down Torchwood One. They were born in an alternate universe and supposedly destroyed in this one," he explained quickly.

"So how did one get inside the Hub?" Gwen asked, also turning to look at Ianto.

"Her name is Lisa," Ianto said in defeat. "She's my girlfriend." Saying the words out loud to Jack was painful. He knew how it all looked through Jack's eyes. Still, Ianto needed Jack to understand why he'd done it.

Jack lowered the Webley and the look in his eyes screamed anger and pain. "You knew it was here. You hid it here. In my home." Jack was stating facts, not asking questions.

"Yes," Ianto whispered. In that moment he was more worried about the pain he had caused Jack than he was the failed attempt to cure Lisa.

Jack stared at Ianto inscrutably for several long moments before he turned his attention to the unconscious form of Owen. "Help me get Owen to safety before that thing comes back."

Ianto bent to help lift Owen over Jack's broad shoulder as he spoke. "She's not a thing. Her name is Lisa." He willed Jack to understand and forgive.

"It's a Cyberman, Ianto," Jack said impatiently past the grunt of effort to lift Owen. "Your Lisa is gone."

"No, Jack," Ianto argued as he led the way down the corridor toward the main Hub. "The conversion wasn't complete. We have to try to reverse the process."

"Ianto, believe me," Jack sounded strained under Owen's weight. "Those who are converted stay that way. There is no cure."

"Lisa was Torchwood. We owe it to her to try." Ianto wasn't ready to let go of the dream that had kept him alive these past few months, even as he yearned for forgiveness from the man who had kept him sane.

"Damn it, Ianto," Jack snapped at him. "Whose side are you on? You need to decide or you won't make it out of this alive."

Jack's words chilled Ianto and he didn't dare turn to look at his Captain. He didn't think he could stand to see the anger and betrayal again.

They reached the main Hub and Jack gently set Owen's reviving form down by the water tower. "Lisa is still in there somewhere," Ianto pleaded. "Just let me try to talk to her before you try to destroy her."

"It's too dangerous, Ianto," Jack argued, stepping into Ianto's space, crowding him.

"Please, Jack," Ianto said quietly, meeting Jack's steely gaze and not backing down.

Jack's next words were spoken in a voice too low to be overheard by the rest of the team, "She's been here the entire time, hasn't she?"

"I'm sorry," Ianto replied, confirming Jack's suspicions.

"You told me she was deceased." Ianto realized they had come to the crux of the conflict.

"To the world at large she died at Canary Wharf."

"Today I'm going to make sure her body really dies this time." Horror at Jack's words rolled over Ianto like a wave. He needed Jack to understand, not to destroy the very reason Ianto still lived.

"What if I can talk to her? Reach that part of her that's still Lisa?"

Ianto watched as Jack lifted his chin in defence as he spoke. "You love her that much?"

Ianto read between the lines of what Jack asked. She means more to you than I do. He searched frantically for some way to gain back control of this situation. He needed for Jack to know that he wasn't less in Ianto's eyes than Lisa was, but he also couldn't shake that sense of duty and obligation to Lisa and the thousands of others in the flames of London.

"Yes," he answered Jack simply.

Ianto saw the moment Jack's resolve melted, but he knew none of the team had.

An instant later, thunderous footfalls echoed behind him and he spun to see Lisa standing across the pool by the cog door. Without thinking, Ianto ran across the Hub until he was just meters from Lisa.

_**T**_he last thing Ianto had thought before he crashed into the floor of the Hub was that Jack had been right; Lisa had died at Canary Wharf. Then he was clawing his way back to consciousness. He wasn't sure why, but he needed to wake up. Jack needed him. Jack was in danger. Jack was trying to protect them all against something dangerous Ianto couldn't name. He hurt, but he couldn't remember how he'd been hurt. It had something to do with what Jack was trying to protect them from.

He was cold. It felt as though his clothing was damp. Ianto felt himself being cradled in strong arms and warmth was beginning to spread through him, starting at his lips. He awoke suddenly with a gasp. Ianto's eyes flew open to see Jack's sharp blue ones. He was about to speak when Jack placed a finger to his own lips. Ianto remained silent.

Whatever threat he'd been concerned about as he battled his way back to awareness was obviously still present. He just couldn't place what it was. Ianto only knew that Jack was holding him and had been kissing him with great affection and concern. Was he hurt that badly? He didn't feel like it.  
A sudden angry, electronic toned scream filled the Hub and Ianto was suddenly slammed back into reality. Lisa. Only, not Lisa. She had hurt Owen. She'd tried to hurt Jack. She'd thrown Ianto across the Hub, trying to kill him. His Lisa would never do anything like this. He was coming to believe his Lisa really had been dead these long months, replaced by a manipulative metal machine.

The weight of responsibility for what he had caused pressed heavily on him as did the aftermath of Torchwood London's fall. In that moment, Ianto was sure he'd never be free from all of his burdens.

Still, Lisa was his responsibility. If she still lived, he needed to try to save her. If she was already gone, it was his duty to see to her final disposition. He dragged himself from Jack's embrace, only barely aware that his abrupt departure had caused Jack to topple over. Ianto rushed toward the sound of the electronic scream. He found Owen, Gwen and a seemingly dead Lisa in the Autopsy bay.

Gwen and Owen were speaking. They were trying to tell him something; justify their killing of Lisa. He made his way to her, surprisingly relieved that her suffering was over. No one was more shocked than Ianto when her eyes shot open and she once again began to move.

Gwen grabbed hold of him and dragged him up the stairs and out of the bay. After the wound Owen had inflicted on Lisa, the fact that she was still up and moving was inhuman. She was still his responsibility, though. Her body had once belonged to his Lisa. He owed it to her to end her suffering humanely and peacefully. He just didn't know how to go about it.

At Jack's instruction, Gwen and Owen restrained Ianto on the invisible lift. He fought desperately against them, but they held him fast. Some part of him knew how this was all going to end and he raged against it. Ianto was horrified when Jack stepped up onto the lift with them and apologized just before releasing Myfanwy from her nest so that she could swoop down and destroy Lisa. This was not how things were supposed to end. He was failing Lisa and Jack was slipping away from him as he watched, impotent to act.

All Ianto could think was that Lisa was his responsibility. He should be the one to deal with her quickly and painlessly. He screamed at Jack to have some fucking mercy, but what he really meant was that he wanted to be released so that he could show Lisa some mercy. Jack was unmovable. The lift continued to rise up through the Hub and through to the street above. All the while Ianto watched what was left of Lisa battle Myfanwy for her life and start to lose. She didn't deserve this. Ianto felt a blinding anger at Jack rise up inside of him and boil over.

_**I**_anto had blood on his hands, both literally and metaphorically. His hands were stained red with Lisa's actual blood. What couldn't be seen was the responsibility he bore for the deaths of Dr. Tanizaki and the poor Jubilee delivery girl. He'd liked Annie; she was friendly and respectful. Now she was dead, and he was at fault.

He couldn't seem to stop crying. He knelt in the blood and sobbed while the team began the clean up around him. In the end, he hadn't been able to dispatch Lisa humanely, as he had wanted. He'd pointed his weapon at her. He'd intended to end it for her, but he just hadn't been able to pull the trigger.

Jack had taken pity on him and directed the team to put an end to things for him. Ianto's guilt knew no bounds now. He'd had a responsibility to Lisa and he'd failed her. Jack had lead the team into the Hub after Ianto and done what he hadn't been able to do. They had put Lisa out of her misery once and for all.

Ianto could only cry at his own failure and at the waste of such promising human life. He wanted to die himself.

Worse still was the profound sense of relief he felt now that Lisa was well and truly gone. His happiness that her daily care was no longer his responsibility brought a wave of guilt crashing down on him. Ianto was acutely aware that he'd been manipulated into caring for the Cyberman masquerading as Lisa, but that didn't mitigate his sense of obligation to those who didn't make it out of Canary Wharf alive. Ianto felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders and he was ashamed of the first stirrings of happiness he felt.

Now that the shell of Lisa was dead, Ianto was no longer trapped between her and Jack. But what would Jack's reaction to all of this be in the end? He dreaded finding out. He'd failed Lisa in the end and didn't think he'd survive if Jack turned away from him, too.

When he came back into himself, Ianto was aware that Owen was fiercely tearing apart the conversion unit with nominal help from Gwen. For her part, she seemed lost and at loose ends. She clearly didn't fully understand what had just happened to them all and how close they had come to having Armageddon unleashed.

Ianto watched as Tosh sorted through the debris piles Owen was creating. She appeared to further mangle certain items, and others were moved to a smaller pile she seemed to be planning to salvage. She regularly made eye contact with him, gracing him with small, shy smiles of encouragement as he knelt in gore and began his process of mourning.

Ianto observed the proceedings as if from outside of himself as he continued to cradle what was left of Lisa's metal clad body. It was Jack who was the first to touch Ianto. He knelt behind him and firmly grasped his shoulders.

"Come on, Ianto," Jack said softly. "You're shivering. Going into shock."

He had to pry Ianto's hands from Lisa's limp form and nearly drag him to stand. Jack kept his arms tight around Ianto as he led him from the room and down the darkened corridor. Ianto let himself be led and manipulated, not having the strength to resist.

"Let's get you into the shower," Jack said as they slowly made their way through the Hub. "It'll warm you up and get you clean at the same time. Then I'll take you home."

"Yes, sir," was the only reply Ianto could muster. He didn't dare let himself hope that Jack's actions meant understanding, let alone absolution.

"Once I get you home," Jack continued. "You're going to stay there. I'm going to suspend you for a month, Ianto."

"I understand," Ianto replied. He'd expected, and feared, far worse.

"What you did was very wrong. You put us all at risk."

"I realize that now."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jack asked. "I understand why you did what you did in the beginning but afterward…" Jack trailed off.

"It felt like I was betraying her."

"Did it bother you that you were betraying me?"

"Constantly."

"I'd have understood. I'd have helped you. What makes me angry is all this time you've hid yourself from us. From me. The real you, anyway. You put us all at risk by not telling me about any of this. The end result would most likely have been the same. Lisa couldn't be saved. But at least we could have avoided all this destruction and bloodshed."

"I'm sorry," Ianto whispered and felt Jack rub his back in response.

"I know you are, but I can't let this go unanswered."

"I understand."

They reached the shower and Jack began to remove Ianto's clothes.

"Where do we go from here?" Ianto heard himself ask, but what he really wanted to know was whether Jack was lost to him forever.

"We get through your suspension and then you decide where you want to go after that."

Ianto felt the tightness in his chest loosen at Jack's words. He still had a chance at being forgiven. He still had a chance with Jack. "I didn't like deceiving you." It seemed the very least he owed Jack.

"That's good to know. It's a place for us to start."

And start again they did.

finito

(OK to convert and Kindle as long as header remains intact)


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